Honey Maid’s ‘Love’: A message to critics of ad featuring gay parents

Honey Maid stirred controversy with a recent commercial that challenged traditional notions of what constituted a family.

“This Is Wholesome” features a variety of families, including interracial couples and their mixed-race children, as well as a same-sex couple and their children.

[Updated 12:05 p.m. PDT April 4: We asked for comments and have gotten some interesting responses (see at bottom), including: “Vote with your dollars,” “I feel bad for the kids,” “This is a beautiful commercial” and “I want graham crackers.” Check them out, at bottom of post.]

As would be expected, Honey Maid generated a strong anti-gay backlash. The company could have let it lie. Instead Honey Maid decided to make a new statement.

On YouTube, the company wrote: “We made a commercial about what makes families, family. And we received a lot of comments. See what we did with them.”

Messages on paper are rolled into tubes and used to spell out the word “love.” For this viewer, it spurred visions of ‘60s flower power, when hippie demonstrators offered up flowers to police. The sentiment is peaceful but also says, “Take that!”

This does provide more publicity for Honey Maid. But it seems we’ve moved beyond graham crackers here. Even beyond s’mores!

Tell us what you think of the new Honey Maid video in the comments below.

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